Public Domain Manifesto

Paul sez,

Over the last few months a couple of academics and free culture activists working together in the Communia network have drafted a manifesto about the public domain in the digital age.

This public domain manifesto was launched yesterday and we are looking for signatures (we already have quite a lot of them).

The manifesto underlines the importance of the public domain as a shared resource and established a number of principles for the public domain in the digital age. The first principle is:

The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception. Since copyright protection is granted only with respect to original forms of expression, the vast majority of data, information and ideas produced worldwide at any given time belongs to the Public Domain. In addition to information that is not eligible for protection, the Public Domain is enlarged every year by works whose term of protection expires. The combined application of the requirements for protection and the limited duration of the copyright protection contribute to the wealth of the Public Domain so as to ensure access to our shared culture and knowledge.

Read the rest of the manifesto (and sign it!) at www.publicdomainmanifesto.org.

The Public Domain Manifesto
(Thanks, Paul!)